Archives

Results 2001

World Youth 2001

Puchen Wang scored 6.5/11 in the World Under 12 Boys for 25th equal, and 33rd on
countback. Evginia Charomova scored 5.5/11 in the Under 12 Girls for 33rd equal
and 47th on countback. A full report available in the NZ Team Reports pages.

All Canterbury 2001

The 2001 All Canterbury event saw Bruce Anderson head the field with 4.5/5, with
Ben Giles second on 4/5. Twelve players took part.

Waikato Open Hamilton 17th, 18th & 19th August 2001

The tenth Waikato Open attracted a field of 32 players for the 6 round swiss
format weekender. Half of the field was from outside the Hamilton region
including a 5 player Wellington contingent. The pre-tournament favourite was
Leonard McLaren, a regular at Waikato tournaments, along with local player
Graeme Spain.

Open: 1st = (5 points) M van der Hoorn, L McLaren, R Gibbons

Grade 1 (u1700): 1st = (4 points) M Nyberg, P Rossiter

Grade 2 (u1400): 1st (3.5 points) T Gothorp

2nd = (3 points) A Mayne, V Prinsloo

Top Juniors: V Prinsloo (3), C J Philips (2.5)

Len Whitehouse Memorial Trophy (top Waikato player) G Spain (4.5)

Upset Prize: G Judkins

Devonport Open Junior Chess Tournament 18th & 19th August 2001

Felicity Timings organised a very successful weekend tournament for children
under 13, which attracted 108 entrants and was won by Puchen Wang, with Evginia
Charamova among those sharing second (she lost only to Puchen). Director of Play
was David Shead, while NZCF Coach Ewen Green also assisted.

Birkenhead Licensing Trust Open Auckland 22nd & 23rd September 2001

Another successful event took place last weekend with the Open tournament
eventually being won by Bob Smith and Ben Giles (4/5). The outright winner of
the "B" Grade tournament was Aaron Cossey.

Maruia Open 2001 - A Brief Report and Crosstable by Chris Wright

The Lewis Pass on the way to Maruia Springs, Springs Junction, Maruia,
Murchison, and Nelson is a very scenic place to drive through. We drove past
Maruia Springs (the initial venue) which is 41 km south of Springs Junction, and
Maruia Village is 20 km east of Springs Junction. It took about two and a half
hours drive (230 km) to get to Maruia from Christchurch. Maruia is the midpoint
between Nelson and Christchurch. A very picturesque place - a secluded area
amongst forest and mountains with snow on them. The air was fresh and crisp.
Maruia is a peaceful location. It was good to catch up with old friends again,
and Friday night consisted an evening of 5 minute chess and a Hungarian goulash
meal that Pearl Giles had superbly prepared. The venison was delicious! The
venue was Reid’s Store, a very famous Backpackers that you would find listed in
any Lonely Planet travel guide. A fabulous venue to play chess! The Maruia Open
drew players from Nelson, Wakefield, Maruia, Christchurch, and North Otago.
Sadly, Gavin Marner and FM, ICM Mark Noble could not join us, but Maruia still
had a strong tournament line-up nonetheless! The top six seeds in the tournament
were past or present chess champions. Scott Wastney (NZ Chess Champion), Ben
Giles (South Island Chess Champion), John van Ginkel (Nelson Champion), Shane
Hudson (1992 NZ Schoolpupil Champion), Brian Donaldson and Arie Nijman (1999
South Island Champions). There were 16 players at the Maruia Open. Bruce
Donaldson, Arie Nijman, Bruce Gloistein, and Dan Dolejs made up the tournament
midfield (rating distribution 1786 to 1658).

In the first round I was paired to
play Ben Giles. After I thrashed out 31. ...Qxf3 I heard a smirk from Scott
Wastney who was watching. After the game he showed that I had missed a force win
in two! (2019 Editor's note: this game is in the Peter Stuart NZ Database, now
freely available on this website). Instead, the result was a draw, but I was happy with that!

In rounds two and four I played white against Bruce Gloistein (North Otago) and Erin Roughton
(Wakefield) - I lost both games due to my desire to over-press. I also found out
that a free pawn is not always a free pawn! In round three I got to play Sarah
Brown (aged 11). Sarah came 3rd in the Christchurch Schoolgirls
Championship on May 30 earlier this year. During analysis with Bruce Gloistein,
Bruce said that Sarah had a strong game. Sarah did put me under a lot of
pressure in the opening and early middlegame. Embarrassingly, I could have lost
my Queen! I must admit, I had more to fear in this game than I did against my
easy win against Edith Otene in the Waitemata Major Open! Sarah is distinct from
the other Junior chess players in that she has the concentration and maturity at
the chess board to be a good tournament player. In my opinion, and in Ben Giles
opinion, she has great potential to be a very strong player. During friendly
games, she defeated another promising junior, Shannon Clements (aged 16), from
Nelson College. I played two games with Shannon in friendly play, both games
were drawn.

As for other juniors, Patrick Downey (winner of junior prize at
Nelson Cole Cup - 16th June 2001) looks promising but has a lot of
work yet to do, and as for Chris Wastney (Scott’s nephew) and Michael Price -
Sarah Brown proved that she is clearly the stronger player! After 3 rounds of
chess on the first day of play, Saturday night entailed the playing of trivial
pursuit - as relaxation. This was enjoyed after a pasta dish and a cold beer.
Bruce Gloistein (nicknamed Groinstrain) won the Grade 1 prize on countback.
Sarah Brown clearly won the Grade 2 prize (despite her not being present for the
first two rounds due to a Saturday netball game), and Scott Wastney won the
Maruia Open trophy. Sadly, Ben Giles had a poor tournament, drawing with Chris
Wright (I missed a force win in two), and lost to Arie Nijman and Shane Hudson.
I do hope that Ben can still make the 2000 qualification mark for the upcoming
109th NZ Chess Congress. Ben and Pearl Giles are to be highly complimented for
their generous hospitality and organisation of the Maruia event. Everyone
enjoyed their time in Maruia, and everyone desires to be back next year. See you
at the Maruia Open in 2002!

North Island Championship 2001

The 2001 North Is. Champion is FM Bruce Watson who scored an impressive 7.5/ 8
to head head off second seed Graeme Spain who finished on 6.5. Despite an
increased prize fund, excellent playing conditions, and plenty of advance notice
the field was smaller than usual (26), and notable for the absence of many top
players. Bruce's "picket fence" was stopped by Ben Giles in Round 6, with Graeme
Spain losing to to the top seed and drawing with Henry Vital in the final round.
Henry Vital and Ben Giles finished on 5.5 for 3rd = place. Ben Giles' efforts to
keep contact with the leaders were derailed in Round 4 by a loss to Maciej
Wojnar.

One notable feature of the Junior Grade placings was that 1st and 2nd positions
were both taken by female competitors in Evgenia Charamova and Dorette Prinsloo.

North Island Rapid Championship 2001

In a field of 40 players including 15 juniors, the honours were finally shared
between top seed Leonard McLaren and Ralph Hart who both finished on 5.5 / 6.
Once again there was a shortage of 2000 plus players at the head of the field.

The pairings for the Rapid were done using the SwissPerfect pairing software
currently being trialled by NZCF, which passed the test with flying colours.